Tri-Tipasaurous

Saucyman, Tri-tip, is it a roast or steak? More importantly do you cook the cut like a steak or a roast? – Dopple-question

Does it have to be a steak OR a roast, can’t it just be good? Tri-tip is a cut of meat from the bottom round of beef cattle, specifically it is a triangular shaped muscle found wedged between the flank, the shank and the round.

According to Christopher Kimball host of PBS's Cook’s Country - beef cattle in the western US are bigger than their eastern counterparts. The tri-tip is kept whole in the left half of the US, hence it is better known on the Pacific half of the country than areas east of the Mississippi. Up until fairly recently tri-tip was usually ground into hamburger, but a combination of low-fat content, taste and price (about 1/3 less than other cuts from the sirloin) have helped the cut of beef become increasingly popular. Tri-tip may be only recently fashionable but the English who historically have been known to like a good wedge of beef, have enjoyed tri-tip for many years, only the Brits call it triangle steak.

And if tri-tip had to be considered either steak or roast, it would be a steak. But it doesn’t cook like a steak exactly. Richard Olney explains the fine balance of cooking steak from his great book, The French Menu Cookbook:

The French say a steak is a point (“just right” the equivalent of medium rare) when, once having been turned the first pearl of transparent, rose colored liquid oozes up through the seared surface. If it is then removed from the grill and kept warm for a few minutes (on a heated serving platter, for instance, a heated bowl or saucepan above it or a warm but not hot oven), the flesh will continue to cook without becoming overdone. Although some people fear rare meat and others say that a steak be bleu, that is to say, both sides so rapidly seared the heat is not allowed to penetrate the interior, an overdone steak is always dry and savorless and one that is underdone is always rubbery and resistant.

In order to achieve a point for tri-tip, the cut needs to be cooked over high heat, then finished in a moderate oven of 300-325, which is pretty much how you cook a roast. Except it doesn’t take as long to finish a tri-tip - only about 20 to 35 minutes as opposed to hours.

Couple things to keep in mind when cooking meat:

Searing doesn’t lock in the juices, it only develops flavor; eventually high temperatures will dry out meat, not completely lock in moisture. Strike a balance between a beautiful caramelized exterior and a moist interior.

Medium rare is 135ºƒ, the best way and most accurate way to tell the internal temperature of any meat is with a thermometer.

Don’t wait until the thermometer says 135ºƒ, everything continues to cook after you take it off the heat. For meat this carryover cooking is about 10 degrees, for all essential purposes, steak is done at 125.

Let the steak rest for about 10 minutes– see above paragraph about platter, bowl, etc. before slicing and serving.

Saucyman’s preferred method for cooking tri-tip is to sear the roast on all sides, crush 6 cloves of garlic in a mortar and pestle with salt and pepper, rub the outside of the tri-tip with seasoning and bake in the oven until 125ºƒ - and then serve with demi-glace, which we will talk about in the next post.